Greetings my fellow Odanites, allies of the Lotus, and dark side spies.

War is on the horizon and there’s a lot to talk about...

This month’s featured art is of our favorite Odanite power couple :P by Kaela Croft with some modification by Vyr (with artist permission) Kaela has done several DB commissions lately check some of them out.

Brotherhood News

• Grand Master - Seriously if you read nothing else, you need to read this. The Grand Master has submitted his semi-annual Star Chamber report as his, um, site report. The biggest takeaway from this is the decision to delay the Great Jedi War in order to make it more immersive and with a different plot from what we’ve been working with the past few years. This is very exciting news and I’ll get into more detail on it and what this decision means for COU later in this report.

• Headmaster - While Farrin was away grading all our ACC matches <3 and doing headmastery things for summer, his praetor Laren stepped up to give an update on all that’s going on in Shadow Academy.

• Fist - Dracpool is trying out some new competition types including some gaming brackets! Also, there are some updated rules on game chat (no gifs, images, etc.). Be sure to check them out.

• Voice - This is another must-read report as Wally lays out a bunch of helpful ACC tips from the event judges and some key guidelines for the upcoming GJW storyline.

• New DB planet - Arx - After a lot of work put in by the Voice staff (including our very own Moro), the Brotherhood’s new home planet of Arx has been revealed. Go check it out in Wally’s report and on the wiki. I’m certain new ACC venues will be created for it and a whole new host of stories will be told on that world (even if it’s enemy territory for us :P )

JOBS!

• Arcona Proconsul - Ends 19 August - This is a great opportunity to get some senior leadership time in our sister clan (#ohana). Applying for this kind of position is an experience in and of itself.

Clan News

• Everyone say hi to House Shan's new Aedile, Maximus aka Landon. Maximus has really hit the ground running in Shan with their current House event and I look forward to seeing what he can do for the Shan member base.

• Hoth QUA Report - Edgar’s got a new event series to announce, as well as the usual stats.

• Shan QUA/AED Report - Likewise, Moro and Landon have unveiled an event and a featured member fiction.

• Jedi Praxeum - I don’t want to steal any of Blade’s thunder in her upcoming report but the Jedi Praxeum wiki is now live. This was the culmination of a project involving the hard work of several members. Stay tuned for the Roll Mistress report but go ahead and sneak a peek at where our young Jedi will be training. We will be developing other schools for our mercenaries, gray Jedi, etc. down the road.

War never changes...

So, the big topic for this report is the Great Jedi War. Before I get into what to expect let me address two things that have already occurred: the delay and the ACC prelim.

First, the delay was a bit of a disappointment and caused a bit of scrambling to fill the gap across the Brotherhood. However, I firmly believe this was the right call to make and if we get a more interactive event and engaging plot out of it a little extra wait time is a small price to pay. Make sure to pat your local DC’er on the back when you see them, they are working extra hard to make sure we get the best event possible.

We’re all a little curious about what’s in store for the GJW

Second, the preliminary event for the GJW ACC went exceptionally well. The last judgments are getting wrapped up and the stats are still being compiled but I wanted to take a moment and say how proud I am of each of you. The clan really came together and gave the strongest showing we’ve ever given in an ACC event and more importantly had fun while doing it. Pat yourselves on the back and send the proofers a gift basket because they rule.

Now that’s out of the way let’s talk about the upcoming war. It’s been a hot minute since the last Great Jedi War and I know many of you have never been in one before. You’re in good company! Because the Grand Master wants to take this war boldly into new territory both in story and how the events are organized it’s going to be a new experience for all of us. Here are some things I want you to remember regarding the war:

• Don’t stress it!

If you take nothing else from what I’m saying today, do not stress about the Great Jedi War. Just don’t. It’s a competition for fun in an internet club, at no time should it cause you any real world stress. That being said it is a competition and some people enjoy competing, I’m one of those people (which is partly why I love the ACC so much). Winning the GJW would be neat and I’ll give my all in the competitions to help make that happen but I would rather come in dead last as a clan than create an environment that’s stressful or toxic for our members. We have an amazing community full of friendly and talented members and have come so far since the last GJW. We’ve already won in my book.

• Stay classy.

When it comes to competition Odanites play fair and shake our opponent’s hand at the end. That’s what we’re about. You guys and gals have built up that strong reputation as a clan and we need to carry that forward. If something feels shady, it probably is, report it to your summit or a DC member. No silly club medal or competition is worth sacrificing your integrity.

If we win, be gracious and humble. Pride in a job well done and celebration of victory are fine, but don’t go overboard in spiking the proverbial football. At the end of the day all the Brotherhood members are here for the same reasons and the other clans are our friends. Never lose sight of that. #ohana

Finally, stay positive. Things may not turn out the way you thought they would. Organizers are human and make mistakes. Notify in private (via email) and carry on, don’t dwell on it and excessively complain in public. Don’t let any loss get you down, this is all for fun. Learn what you can and fight another day.

• Support one another.

I don’t think I need to tell you this because you’ve already done it in the prelim, but lift each other up. If you can’t do all the events or don’t like some of the events don’t down people who participate. Sometimes the best thing you can do is cheer your clanmates on and be available to proof entries, bounce ideas or just provide a laugh or a gaming buddy to unwind.

Support the members of other clans as well. Like I said, we are all here for the same reasons and they are our friends.

Be excellent to one another.

Competition Spotlight

Competitions by and for COU Members

There’s a ton of cool stuff going on this month, courtesy of our fantastic house summits. To start off, each house is running a big event for the month of August.

• First, Satele Shan brings us the Last Voyage of the Kesaret, running now through September 4.

• Over on the Hothan side, there’s something fishy going on with Suspicion on Solyiat, also running now through September 9. While only members of the appropriate house can place in these events, we do encourage you to do any of the ones you want for fun and participation credit.

• Moro/A’lora/Kasula is running a small comp series for the Wiki Revision Project, which gives you the change to update and expand our official lore.

• [Garza Presents] 3 Word Story - Garza’s Pathfinders BTL Tamashi brings you three light and fun clan comps, running through August 31. I haven’t seen anything like these in ages, so head over to Discourse and join in.

• [Garza Presents] Grant a Wish!

• [Garza Presents] Telegram Quotes

DB-wide Competitions of Note

• Art 4 Arx - Now that we have a new planet, it’s time to pimp out its wiki page. There are 4 sub-comps running through August 28. We expect to see some flowers and rainbows in the darkity dark heart of the Brotherhood!

• Waiting is the Worst Part - Kord is getting a little meta with his latest fiction competition, running through August 31.

• Star Wars Art Puzzles - Juna has what you need. Puzzlessss. A new one each week through September 3.

• Gorefest runs from the 17th to 20th this month.

AskTurel

Wolfe - #askTurel (and @Archenksov separately) in the time you've been active in the DJB, what has been your most influential factor for remaining active? What advice would you give to us newer members to prevent burnout while still feeling like we're maintaining ourselves as active members of the community? Fiction writing may come easily to some of us, others may be better in gaming, but with issues like physical disconnect or depression how do we maintain the feeling that we contribute?

The best advice I can give anyone is connect with your fellow members of the community and do what you love. It’s a lot easier to do stuff with your friends than it is to try to just do things solo. I rotate my activities as well, sometimes you get in a writing rut or burn out on the DB gaming platforms and that’s okay. That’s a good time to branch out and try something new, like graphics (shameless plug). I never thought I would do graphics but following along with guides and Vyr’s google groups sessions had me doing things I never thought I would. You never know until you try. I first joined the DB as strictly a gamer, fiction writing was something I had never done.

Nero - #AskTurel With the war happening soon^TM do you have any advice for the members so they can have it be as enjoyable as possible.

First off, don’t stress it. Wars are competitions, but all competitions are supposed to be fun. You should never have real world stress from an internet club. Second, invest in the narrative. GJWs are major events in the larger story for the brotherhood and the clans but they can also be major turning points in the story for your character. I used an event in the run-on from the last war (Turel getting captured by COU forces) as a major turning point that lead him to returning to the Jedi. Third, encourage others. Even if you don’t have time to do all the events or whatever, you can still help the clan out a lot by staying positive in the clan channels, offering encouragement and helping out by proofing or bouncing ideas.

I can barely contain my excitement about the upcoming war and all it’s shiny newness

Edgar - #AskTurel What do you still wish to accomplish before you step down from Consul? Are there any road blocks currently in your way?

There is so much I would like to accomplish for COU, but the real question is how much of that do I actually need to be Consul to do? My biggest goal for Consul was to in a manner of speaking work myself out of a job. I think we’re just about there. The Clan has a strong, supportive community and a talented group of young leaders on the summit with more rising through the ranks. I could get hit by a bus tomorrow and the Clan wouldn’t miss a beat, though I’m sure you’d all miss me.

The biggest things I want to accomplish are getting through the GJW and one more clan internal event I’ve been stewing on for a long time. After that, I’ll look at where we are and see if the time is right to step aside for newer leaders to move up. I’ll never stop working for the clan but I’ve been on Clan summit for over two years now, I’ve never been in either House. It’s getting time for me to join you guys and work from the front lines. <3

Len - What are your feelings on how the ACC Prelim event went for the Clan? What are the major areas we can improve on?

As a Clan we did exceptional, people banded together, stretched their writing muscles and generally had a good time. The amount of support, encouragement and willingness to do things like proof posts for fellow members I saw made me a super proud red panda. (special shout out to Jasper for her morale raising method of proofing a post

Fun fact, Shifu from Kung Fu Panda is actually a red panda...guess who my new spirit animal is...well maybe if I make elder or something

The biggest improve I have for the group is to be patient with the ACC system, especially when it comes to matters of realism and NFUs vs FUs, etc. The ACC isn’t perfect and neither are the judges but it’s also a living system that can be improved through making suggestions and writing up serious proposals on how to make it better. I love the ACC more than most, but at the same time I get where a lot of the frustration is coming from.

Brocon (Uji) - #AskTurel With War and other major events on the horizon - what do you suggest for team leaders (BTL's and Aediles) on how you would go about generating interest and activity for major events? specifically dispelling belief around not being good enough or able to win such events?

• Arch - Well, specifically for COU, go look at the numbers for our feud with PLA. Then go look at the numbers in Sarin's report. We have a huge advantage in how many active members we've got relative to almost everyone else. If people show up consistently (especially in group events), we'll do fine. The best way to make that happen is to encourage people to get out of their comfort zone and then make it comfortable for them. That can be really hard to do, but we've seen e.g. Ed go from 'that guy who doesn't write' to someone who put out some really good work for the ACC prelims and the fiction comps in the Tal event, just because he was willing to take that step and do something different. If someone's curious, or they're maybe on the fence about taking that first step, it's a huge help if someone who's more comfortable in that area can encourage them and make themselves available for help and advice. On the flip side, don't try to push people to do things they hate.

Mako - #askTurel What positions would you recommend our newer members (less than one year/under knight) to apply for. What about for our mid level members (knight to eq 2)? And finally for our senior members (eq3 to el3)? Please answer based on promotion needs and experience they will get from said positions.

• Arch - There's really two tracks here, unit and club-wide. For unit leadership, I'd recommend AED. You get to do a little of everything, but most of the actual pressure and responsibility in on your QUA. There's a risk that you're going to have to take on the bulk of managing the House, but assuming you're getting enough support from your QUA and your upper summit, it's probably the best position for developing skills. I think I’m a good example of that: when I was AED, I started off doing very little of the day-to-day work of running Shan, but as Mako walked me through writing recs, running comps, building content, etc. I was able to take on a bigger and bigger role until I could slide comfortably into the QUA slot when you stepped down. Club-wide, almost every office has magistrate (or prof, or judge) positions, and they all do important things. You want to know how awards work? You want to develop your graphics skills? You want to get a really deep understanding of the CS system? That's how you get it. For resume building, any position is a good position, with the caveat that you're doing it wrong if you're just doing it to check off a box.

Sista (Atty) - #askturel what is one challenge you personally think is the most critical to the club right now and what would you hope to do in addressing it?

• Arch - The perpetual challenge is keeping people engaged enough to move the club forward and drive future activity. To do that, you have to pull in new people and develop new leaders faster than you lose old ones to RL or burnout. We've got a few people in COU that we're trying to build up and push into positions, but there's not a silver bullet for this. Out of all of us, I'd say Blade is doing the most to try to make new members feel like this is a real community that they have a stake in.

• Turel - I’m just going to tap into what Arch said by coming at it from a different angle. I think the biggest challenge we face is adapting to the internet and Star Wars community in 2017. The DB was formed in a very different time for a very different audience with very different expectations. Telegram, possessions, google hangouts, the awesome site overall (thanks James, Vyr and the rest of the DC) are steps in the right direction but we still have a ways to go to make things more interactive for the membership and I believe Sarin...I mean Pravus is on top of this by taking the step back to retool the GJW. Just because we’ve always done something one way doesn’t mean we should always do it that way.

Tyraal - #AskTurel In your opinion, has all your constant effort, time invested, and everything been worth it for you, both in life and in the DJB?

• Arch - All? No. Enough? Yes. Some areas of effort more than others, but in general, I stick around because I get more out of it than I put in.

• Turel - Overall yes, I’ve learned to express myself artistically (albeit imperfectly) which has actually been beneficial to me a person and I’ve formed some great friendships of like-minded nerds. If my work for the club helps others find that, then it’s all been worth it.

Closing

Again, great work on the ACC prelim event. I’m super proud of all of you. The House summits have put together some great events, be sure to check them out!

Turel Sorenn

Consul, Clan Odan-Urr